Ubuntu 8.04 First Impressions Revisited

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote and article detailing Ubuntu's latest release, Ubuntu 8.04 and some of the issues I was having with it. Well that's not to say I was the only one to have these issues. Turns out a lot of other people were having similar issues that I was having if not the same issues I was having.

Well, two days ago my wireless just decided to stop working. The light on my laptop for the wireless signal went out and I couldn't see any wireless access points. So I borrowed a wired connection from my desktop and proceeded to browse around online to see if there was a fix, or a better solution to the one I had implemented previously.

Turns out there were no fixes and people are still having problems. My solution? A complete reinstall of Hardy. If it still didn't work, then I would have to, perhaps, switch Linux distros, or worse yet, go back to Windows. Well, I reformatted, reinstalled and again, no wireless device drivers showed up in the Restricted Driver Manager again (remember, it showed up in 7.10 (Gutsy)). The hardware profile detected that I had an Intel PRO/Wireless device on my system but there were no drivers available for it.

Now there was a site I found (sorry can't remember the URL and I can't find it again), it gave detailed instructions on how to enable the Intel PRO/Wrirelss, and I followed the instructions and then voila! I had wireless again (meaning I could see wireless networks instantly). Only downside? The wireless light does not work on my laptop now. I can live with that as long as I have wireless!

So anyways, after using Ubuntu for a few weeks, I have noticed a few things. Namely, it's faster too boot up, and it just looks nicer (granted the orange/brown is getting VERY long in the tooth -- OLD!) and I think it's time for a new colour scheme or theme (I will say that the new wallpaper actually is quite nice compared to the old wallpaper. That being said, I have found an excellent theme for Ubuntu. There is a complete guide on how to install it over here courtesy of Ubuntu Forums.

So I'll have to wait another three to four weeks to see if the current "fix" for the wireless lasts, but if I do have problems again then I think I'll have to ditch the Ubuntu camp and try a different distro, perhaps Fedora or OpenSUSE.

*Edit*
The link I couldn't find before, is actually here. This is what got my wireless working this time.